World Notes Britain

On the bleak housing estates of northeastern England, where unemployment runs as high as 40%, the closing days of summer produced an outbreak of "hotting" -- the teenage sport of racing stolen cars. Last week, during four nights of disturbances, one full-scale riot raged for five hours on an estate in Newcastle-upon-Tyne that is locally known as "the Bronx." Hundreds of youngsters fire-bombed buildings, wrecked and looted shops and stoned the police.

The violence was apparently touched off by the death earlier this month of two young men who were killed while being chased by police at speeds of up to 125 m.p.h. Relatives said the youths had been taking part in another form of automobile delinquency, "ram raiding," which involves driving stolen cars right into stores and then looting them.

Although this year's violence has been widespread, involving similar incidents in Oxford, Cardiff and Birmingham, the Times of London concluded that the worst was over. All would be well when the weather changed, an editorial predicted, because "the best policeman of all is rain."